Omelas Child Soldiers

Children aren’t mature enough to make life or death decisions. All child soldiers should have a chance to be forgiven. “Others enlist ‘voluntarily’, usually because they see few alternatives.” ("From Cradle to War." Amnesty International. Amnesty International USA, Web. 3 May 2016.) Children aren’t wise enough to make the decision, and deserve a chance to be forgiven, just like an immigrant has a chance to become a citizen. And even though once someone is killed, they are permanently dead, the children who kill don’t really know what they’re

On a historic level, I learned about the civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990’s. The war was fought between the rebels and the government and lasted for over a decade. Numerous attacks on civilians caused many to die, especially parents and families. During this time, orphaned child soldiers were commonly used to fight in the war. Ishmael’s personal history describes these attacks. He describes family members being separated and killed, bodies of the dead, lost children, and a constant state of fear. “The sound of guns was so terrifying that it confused everyone. No one was able to think clearly... Everyone just ran for his or her life. Mothers lost their children, whose confused, sad cries

He had overcome many challenges. Children are captured, lied to, drugged, and desensitized to inhumane actions. Along with this children are brainwashed by watching violent movies and often told that the enemy army raped, tortured, and killed the child soldiers family. Ishmael was penitent that he knew his family was gone forever. Some people are biased about child soldiers and may believe what they did was their own fault.

“For child soldiers, everyday is a living nightmare” (Chatterjee, 2012). Child soldiers are children under the age of 18 who are used in the military for any source of benefit. Child soldiers worldwide have become a huge issue, leading to many unnecessary deaths as well as lifelong mental trauma. According to “For Child Soldiers, Every Day is a Living Nightmare” 90% of the child soldiers in Liberia show post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as well as 65% showing depression post-war. Developing these mental illnesses makes the rest of a child’s life a living hell, not to mention their inability to get a job or provide for themselves or their family. Mental illness is probably the best thing you can come out of the war with. An article written in SOS Children’s Villages charity called “Children in Conflict: Child Soldiers” states that over the last 10 years: over 2 million children have been killed, over 1 million children have been orphaned, and over 6 million children have been injured or even disabled, and over 10 million children have struggled with psychological trauma due to war.

Imagine at twelve years old being forced into war and having no way out. Then, quickly being dragged out and pushed back into society. Life was not easy and “normal” did not exist for Ishmael and his friends. In The Making and Unmaking of a Child Solider he shows the readers that he faced mental, physical, and emotional abuse before/after the war. Beah wants the readers to understand that life was not easy in Sierra Leone and not everybody made it out alive or sane.

The reverse is also true, with a constant and forgiving environment Ishmael and other child soldiers are able to mend, not replace, these memories. Ishmael recalls that the staff were always forgiving, saying “It is not your fault that you did such a thing to me” (Pg140) and the staff always came back from the assaults by the boys with a smile. Esther the nurse who often took care of Ishmael and is included especially in the perfect example of a positive human being. She takes the time to connect with him after the war stories he tells her and she still pushes him to heal mentally, giving him small presents and affection making him feel more human than any moment in his war years. This example of such a positive being says a lot, that you get what you give and in this case she gives so much for Ishmael to be the very best he can be. Pushing his music to be performed in front of a numerous amount of diplomats and UN figures; “I read a monologue from Julius Caesar and performed a short hip-hop play about the redemption of a former child soldier that I had written with Esther’s encouragement.” (Pg169) While Ishmael was reciting lyrics some kids had to recite their orders and ran through the bush

What are child soldiers? Child soldiers are people under eighteen who partake in either a regular or irregular armed group in any way. According to Warchild there are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers in the world and often as a part of their recruitment they are forced to either kill or maim a loved one so that they cannot go back home. In Ishmael Beah’s novel A Long Way Gone (Memoirs of a Boy Soldier) the author recounts his life as a child soldier fighting on the government side in Sierra Leone from age thirteen to sixteen. This paper will be attempting to answer the questions of why certain armed groups use children, why it is wrong to do so, and how people are taking a stand to stop it.

These are the words of a 15-year-old girl in Uganda. Like her, there are an estimated 300,000 children under the age of eighteen who are serving as child soldiers in about thirty-six conflict zones (Shaikh). Life on the front lines often brings children face to face with the horrors of war. Too many children have personally experienced or witnessed physical violence, including executions, death squad killings, disappearances, torture, arrest, sexual abuse, bombings, forced displacement, destruction of home, and massacres. Over the past ten years,

The side that argues prosecuting the child soldiers says kids were given the option to stay or leave, and most chose to stay. That is only partly true. It is true that they are given the option. Yet, the children indirectly forced to stay. Because they have become addicted to the drugs the warlords gave them, they are now dependent on them for those drugs and simply cannot leave, as it reads on debatewise.org. Also, Ishmael Beah points out that through the war, they have gained a connection to their commanders and fellow soldiers. For some, including Ishmael, it is the only family they have left. So, they may, indeed, choose to stay, but not for the reason the many believe. Instead of staying for the fighting, the stay for of family. Those who argue that child soldiers should be considered the perpetrators also say that if we grant amnesty to the soldiers, there would be no justice for the victims they killed. This is completely agreeable and understandable. It is agreeable that there should be punishment given in order to fulfill justice for the victims. However, in order for justice to be fully satisfied, the children should not be the ones punished, but rather, the warlords who wish to come to the US from their country of origin. The warlords drug the child soldiers and kill those who do not follow orders. They also force some to join. If child soldiers were

Child soldiers are found throughout history again and again. Child soldiers have been conscripted to war, kidnapped to participate in war-like acts, and even volunteered for these wars. Often, the children did not know what they were volunteering for. They were excited for the fun, exciting uniforms; they were excited to be a part of something bigger, and to feel like adults.

Children are one of the many victims of conflicts especially in places like Syria and Sudan where there is a constant exchange of combat. Many children lose their families or are abducted by one side and are left with nothing. These children have no choice but to join with which ever side will accept them, “Bosco was six years old when he was handed a machete by Ugandan rebels led by Joseph Kony. They demanded he kill his little sister (Juli)... Juli was five. She had to die because she couldn 't keep up with the rebels ' pace as they moved to the next location.” (Christina Ruta, 2013). The children that are pushed into military forces often are intimidated into following orders through means like

“Children often volunteer because their family members have been gunned down by paramilitaries or other groups,” said Marco Puzon of UNICEF East Asia about the armed conflict in the Philippines (8). Of course child soldiers might be doing this due to their families dying, but why turn around and do the same thing to other people's family. They had a choice and they made the one that could ruin peoples lives. “Child soldiers are often exposed to extreme levels of violence that result in lifelong emotional and psychological scars,”(8) says Tom Malinowski. Malinowski proves a point.

Child soldiers, each of them are unique individuals each with their own backstory, believes, and level of participation in the war; therefore, they should be treated as so. A ‘one size fits all’ policy would not be fair, and so we should have each child soldier go through a recovery process that includes psychological evaluation, therapy, medical treatment, and an assimilation into a new life. This would help them heal, but from that we can also find those who still strongly believe in their terrorist’s group message and those who have completely moved on from it. For justice to be done, we will give freedom for those who deserve it and prosecute those who deserve it.

American soldiers in a study completed in 2009, have a lifetime rate for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) ranging from 10 to 31%, when observing veterans from the Vietnam War as well as Iraq and Afghanistan (Holdeman 2009). These are men and women who are over the age of 18 that still experience flashbacks from, for example, gruesome sights during battle. Children involved in armed conflict also get PTSD, traumatized by the violence that waned on their countries. It is more than that. Julia Dickson-Gõmez, a professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin, conducted a study on the longevity impacts of being a guerrilla soldier, comparing adult and children soldiers. In her research, it was argued that “traumatic experiences were even more

Intro: Child soldiers have helped the world make decisions about rights of children and the crimes that some have committed . Child soldiers are children who are recruited by the government, taken from their parents, or join because the war is their only option. The children in these situations are under the age of 18 and are brought into the war to be fighters, cooks, suicide bombers, unnecessary purposes, human shields, messengers, or spies. Child soldiers have brought up many debates in the past as well as they will be in the future. One major debate within the topic of child soldiers is if the child soldiers should be given amnesty. Child Soldiers should not be given amnesty because child soldiers have mental disorders from the war, They have the potential to be dangerous, and because many children grew up in the war causing